Page 55 of Desire
Each step down the hallway was heavier than the last.Don’t cry yet.I wanted to hold it together until I was in the privacy of my own room. Once I got to the door, I stood straight up. What if my key didn’t work? What if BCN had called the front desk and told them I was no longer welcome in the room? My heart beat out of my chest as I slid my room key through the reader.The green light flashed as the door beeped. I sighed with relief. At least something was going my way.
I stepped into the room and made sure the door was closed behind me. Suddenly, I felt something hard against my neck, squeezing. Then I felt a hard body against my backside. It was that of a man. I pulled at the fingers on my neck, gasping for a breath that had been stifled.
ThenI saw a man sitting in the armchair, illuminated by the light from the floor lamp. It was Arthur Valentine.
“Let her breathe,” he calmly ordered my attacker.
The man released the pressure around my neck, and I coughed until air flowed freely through my throat again.
“Do you see how fast and easy I can kill you?” Valentine asked, sitting there as if he owned the world.
I didn’t dare answer, and I was sure he didn’t expect me to.
“But I wouldn’t kill you.” He stood casually. “I would kill your boyfriend. He’s the fucking thorn in my side.”
“Then what are you doing here?” I hissed.
He jerked his head back. “Oh, she fucking speaks. Be careful.”
My heart beat like thunder as he walked in my direction. Valentine was pasty and big bellied.His entire face was falling. He resembled a man who didn’t care how bad he aged because, repulsive and all, he could always pay beautiful women to fuck him.
Suddenly, he was in my face and rubbing his hand up and down my crotch. “There’s the pussy young Christmas can’t keep his fucking dick out of. Hey, Jer, how about we fuck it?”
The guy who was holding me grinded against me withhis hard cock.
Instead of being afraid, I grew angrier. “You would be fucking my corpse because you would have to kill me first,” I said then clenched my lips. I meant it.
Valentine smirked as his cold gaze seized mine. He was still rubbing me, but his fingers might as well have been air. I couldn’t feel a lick of arousal. Disgust made my pussy numb. Finally, he grunted and steppedback. Jer’s dick stayed hard, though. I could tell he was eager for his boss to give the order to rape me.
“Stay away from Jasper Christmas,” he finally said.
So many replies raced through my head, but none of them would come out. I was just so happy to see Valentine walk to the door and open it. His disappointed hoodlum grinded against my ass one more time before leaving. I hadn’trealized how foul the man’s breath was until he let go of me.
When the door closed, I rushed over to it and locked all the bolts. My legs turned to jelly, and I collapsed on the floor. While on my knees, I pressed my face against the floor and wailed like a baby.
The crying would not stop,and I couldn’t move. So many minutes, perhaps a few hours, had passed. My face was drenched. I knew at some point I would have to grow silent, get up, and pack. I would have to make my flight first thing in the morning and abandon this wretched city.
Knock, knock, knock.
Suddenly, I grew silent.
“It’s me, Kylie,”she said from the hallway.
I nearly jumped to my feet and raced to answer the door. Not until I saw her face did I realize how frightened I was. I threw my arms around her, holding on to her for dear life.
“Shit, Holly, you’re shaking.”
“It was Arthur Valentine.”
She leaned back to see my face. “Was he here?”
I nodded rapidly. “He threatened me.”
“Shit,”she said with a hard nod. She shook her head. “Well, are you okay?”
I closed my eyes, but I couldn’t stop the tears from streaming like a waterfall.
Kylie walked me to the sofa then ordered us cobb salads and tuna melts from room service. She swore by the food items. She said she’d been at the hotel long enough to know what to order and what not to order. Meanwhile, she poured uswine from what was left over from last night’s bottle. Kylie insisted I sit on the sofa while she informed me on what she had found out earlier that day.
